Last year, NBC Sports decided to air a TV special that discussed each NFL franchise as if it were a Mount Rushmore. So, essentially the top four most influential people in that franchise’s history. It was actually quite a lot of fun, made for some great debate, and by the end it had a lot of my friends and me talking about it. Now, I’ve taken it to the next level and thought about the best Mount Rushmore’s in all of American Sports. This was probably the most difficult blog that I have written for two reasons. One, I wasn’t doing “my favorite 9”, but instead the 9 that I believe to be the best. Two, the crossover in sports. Baseball and football get a little bit more of an advantage just because their histories date back to the early 20th century and even a little beyond in the case of baseball. Basketball and hockey, while having been around for a while, have fluctuated between years of talent and interest, and years of barren performances and insignificance. Baseball and football have generally always had the players and the statistics to make us aware of who was great and who wasn’t. In any case, here are the 9.
#9 – Montreal Canadiens – Guy LaFleur, Maurice Richard, Scotty Bowman, Patrick Roy.
This is tough because I think the Canadians played in a watered-down NHL, and they were the first really successful team. We tend to look back on those teams fondly and think of them better than they really are. I really struggled with this as they scored pretty evenly with the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears and Chicago Bulls among other franchises across sports. They get my 9th spot because between the first 3 gentlemen they won 18(!) Stanley Cups and numerous amounts of scoring titles, Hart trophies and Coach of the year awards. Then to complete the mantle they have arguably the greatest goaltender of all-time and I’m not even talking about Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden. I’m talking about carried the Canadians on his back with the most impressive post season performance of all-time Patrick Roy. And I don’t even like the guy. But this is a legendary squad. Only a few teams in these 9 can match their titles mano-a-mano.
#8 – Brooklyn/LA Dodgers – Jackie Robinson, Vin Scully, Branch Rickey, Sandy Koufax.
This was a tough one, not because I thought about keeping them out, but because of who made it on their mantle. The history is ridiculous; Reese, Campanella, Drysdale, Kershaw, Lasorda, O’Malley, Hershiser, Gibson, Snider and many others all left their mark on this wonderful franchise. But I think the Dodgers have shaped baseball because of the decisions and will power of two men specifically: Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey. If Rickey doesn’t decide that it’s time for a significant historical, cultural and sporting change and if Robinson doesn’t decide to be the inaugural ball player in which to desegregate baseball, then the Dodgers franchise as we know isn’t close to being the same. They are almost synonymous with one another; the Dodgers and Jackie. Vin Scully could also be considered synonymous with the Dodgers. He has been announcing for them since 1950, which as we all know dates back to their days in Brooklyn. His voice is so recognizable that when I hear it, I know that baseball is on. Sandy Koufax could be considered the best pitcher of the middle-generation of baseball (1945-1990) and I probably agree with that. His ERA in the world series 0.95 is one of the great numbers in sports, and will probably last as long as DiMaggio’s hit streak. He retired at 30 which some say may have helped him, while others believe it hindered his stats. I think he was most likely good enough to keep those numbers going for a few more years. In any case, Clayton Kershaw has a lot of work to do before dethroning Koufax from the final spot in this 4.
#7 – Edmonton Oilers – Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri
This Rushmore is most impressive because they all played together at the same time for the Oilers, and dominated the NHL during a time when the league was starting to get stronger (Flames, Bruins, Penguins, etc). They won five titles in seven years before dismantling the roster, (and I’m not joking, they purged the sucker) and even pulled a title without Gretzky and Coffey who were traded before the 1990 Cup win. Wayne Gretzky was an obvious choice as first on the board. Coffey, while probably most prolific with the Pittsburgh Penguins after his demands for a trade, was also an easy choice to put on the board. I put Messier up there because he stayed the longest and was able to win the 1990 championship on his own, before winning another on his own with the Rangers in 1994. Kurri was the one I had the toughest time with, as Kevin Lowe, Grant Fuhr, Glenn Anderson all contributed for many of those years. I also considered Glen Sather as president; he was the one that was able to pull this together for so long. They are by far the smallest market on this list, and it’s not really close. They haven’t had any other strong franchise moments minus their little blip Stanley Cup finals appearance in 2006. In fact, that was their only Stanley Cup appearance without one of the aforementioned players. A definite tribute to Sather and these four players for going on such a great run.
#6 – Pittsburgh Steelers – Dan Rooney, Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Joe Greene
I actually had them rated the same as their cross-town team the Pittsburgh Penguins. I think the Penguins probably would’ve ended up 10th or 11th, but the Steelers had a little more fire power in their front office and trophy wins. This is another franchise that impressed me by the players/coaches that were left off of the list: Chuck Noll, Franco Harris, John Stallworth, Ben Roethlisberger, Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, Hines Ward, Bill Cowher, Rod Woodson, Mel Blount, etc. The amount of success with this franchise is mind-blowing as they’ve won 6 Super Bowls in 8 appearances. Rooney is now the face of this franchise after his father’s passing, and we can assume that Art II will take over in the same manner. I was tempted to put all three Rooney’s into one position, but I didn’t think it fair to the other franchises. Terry Bradshaw is still one of the more recognizable faces of the NFL, and he has 4 rings in which to grace upon his fingers. He had the personality to back up his skills and really made the Steelers a fun team to watch in their heyday (quoting my pops who said I missed out on a really great team). Lynn Swann always came up big in the big moments and I think in today’s NFL he would have really thrived with the liberal wide-open offenses that we have become accustomed to. Mean Joe Greene was the face of the Steelers defense, and the coke commercial gave him nationwide popularity. Troy Polamalu has kind of had similar success, but for me Greene earns the final spot.
#5 – Boston Celtics – Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Red Auerbach
This is where I think it gets ridiculous. The top 5 franchises are far and away the greatest in our sporting history and the amount of people that I had to leave off the Rushmore’s are simply astounding. I’m not going to go through the names anymore, but many of you can probably guess all the Celtics that are missing from this mantle. I was never going to keep Larry Bird off. I believe that if he had never had all the injuries and back problems over the years that he would’ve been mentioned just behind Michael and ahead of LeBron and Kobe in the aura of the greatest ever players. He could play defense, pass the ball, rebound and he was a sensational scorer. He has titles, face value, leadership qualities; in an essence he is the total package. Imagine Bird in the twitter era... Bill Russell was probably the greatest winner in American sports history. He was a two-time NCAA champion back when freshmen weren’t allowed to play basketball. He won... 11(!!!) NBA titles with eight of them coming in a row! I also think that is another “statistic” that I don’t think will ever be matched, and I think it’s one of the greatest feats in mankind’s history. For all the things that would have to go right for that to happen... He won 5 MVP awards as well, and I think I’m just going to take it to Bob Cousy now. Cousy, one of four PG’s along with Steve Nash, Magic Johnson and Derrick Rose to win an MVP award. He was probably the player that made the Celtics tick during all of those titles. While Russell was stout on defense and the boards, his offensive game wasn’t world beating, and it was Cousy who had the skill set to score and find Tom Heinsohn and Bill Sharman among others. He won 6 titles in 13 seasons with the Celtics including his last five seasons there. Auerbach was the architect of this entire franchise. Between being coach and executive of the Boston Celtics he won 16 titles. After stepping away as head coach, he went into the general manager position and drafted Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge and traded for Robert Parish. These moves led to another 3 titles and put Boston in a great position to maintain the titles lead for years to come. The only reason I don’t have them higher on this list is because of my Mount Rushmore mantra – Style and substance. They just didn’t have as much style as another basketball unit higher up the charts.
#4 – Dallas Cowboys – Jerry Jones, Emmitt Smith, Tom Landry, Roger Staubach.
This was a tough one because I had a hard time leaving out Troy Aikman, winner of three super bowls. They also had a large number of great defensive players during the Tom Landry era, and any one of them (mainly Ed Jones) could have also sneaked into this group. But I just felt like Landry was larger than anyone of those players, and Staubach was a legend, where as Aikman was just a winner. Jerry Jones has transformed this franchise in a way that probably has never been done, before or since. They were a dormant franchise when he purchased them in the late 1980’s with a crappy stadium, a crappy roster, and a (forgive me Tom) stale coach who had probably gone on just a little bit too long. No one wanted to see Landry go really, but it needed to be done and Jerry had a pair that wasn’t afraid to make any decision. He brought in Jimmy Johnson and won two super bowls, clashed with him, and instead of fading away, he brought in Barry Switzer and won another Super bowl. They won 3 of 4 super bowls and if their peak didn’t come to fruition at the exact same time of the Giants and 49ers, they most certainly would’ve won more. He has the “most extravagant” stadium in sports, and is probably the most recognizable in the NFL (certainly outside of New England). He is probably one of three owners that could officially be labeled as the face of the franchise (Steinbrenner, Cuban). Emmitt was a horse. Growing up, I never liked him, because I believed that he was a product of a great offensive line and an offense that really couldn’t be stopped no matter what the defense did. Looking back, he made things almost easy for Dallas. The year was 1993, and Emmitt decided to hold out. Jerry wasn’t going to pay him because he believed that the team could win without Emmitt. They started 0-2. Emmitt came back. They went 15-2 and won another Super Bowl and Emmitt won the rushing title, the MVP award and the Super Bowl MVP award. Yours truly had a hard time with that, but needless to say, I was wrong about him. Landry was a legend. During his coaching ‘prime’ from 1966-1985 he had a total of... 0 losing seasons. 0! In twenty years! How it all came to a crashing halt I’ll never know because he had 3 losing seasons from that point until he retired/got pushed out in 1988. He was credited with inventing the 4-3 defense, because up until that time, most teams ran a 5-2 defense to match up with the offensive lines. By moving the middle lineman backwards and essentially making him a linebacker, it got more speed onto the field and paved way for the great Cowboys, Dolphins and Steelers defenses of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Roger Staubach was the gunslinger of his day. He is obviously known for the “Hail Mary” play, but what most don’t know is that he led the Cowboys to 23 4th quarter comebacks including 17 in the final two minutes during his career (thank you Pro Football Reference for that one). He took the Cowboys to four Super Bowls and created the scrambling style of quarterback that Randall Cunningham and Steve Young really took to the next level. But he won too.
#3 – San Francisco 49ers – Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Bill Walsh, Steve Young
When I first thought about Mount Rushmore lists, this is the team that I thought would be at the top of the summit. Commenting conservatively I would say these are the best quarterback of all-time, the best receiver of all-time, the 3rd best football coach of all-time (and one who changed offenses forever) and the best scrambling quarterback of all-time (11th on my total list). Not a bad group. They did everything I’ve asked of a Rushmore; they won titles (13 Super Bowls in the toughest era IMO) they set records (too many to list), they were in commercials (all of them, check out Steve Young’s) they had charisma (Joe’s wife though!) and they changed the sport. But you will see that two franchises have done it just a little bit better. In any case, Montana is one of the greatest of all-time. He had pretty much all of it – he was a leader, he liked the big moments; embraced them actually, he had personality off the field (Notre Dame guy, Hanes) and he won. A lot. Except in Kansas City. Jerry Rice for me is the greatest football player of all-time. The guy worked harder off the field than he did on it. He could catch the deep ball. He could run the short routes (best IMO). He could take handoffs (Tecmo Bowl even had a reverse handoff for him). He played beyond 40 and quite well. He missed an entire (!) season during his prime years due to an ACL/MCL tear, came back after 3 months only to bust a kneecap. He then had 82 catches for 1,150 and 9 touchdowns in the year after those injuries. Including missing that entire season, he has 208 touchdowns (33 more than runner-up Emmitt Smith) and a... wait for it... 224 more receptions than the next closest player, Tony Gonzalez. Take out Tony, and Marvin Harrison is 447 receptions behind Jerry. He also has 5 super Bowl rings and 6 appearances in that game. And... A Dancing with the Stars title to boot! Bill Walsh created the West Coast offense. The idea was that defenses in the NFL were getting faster and stronger, and the rushing attacks of the 1970’s were having a hard time adjusting. So Walsh decides to use the pass to set up the run, which was almost unheard of prior to that time. By getting 2-3 WR’s on the field and even multiple tight ends, it forced the defense to read instead of playing instinctively. That created holes for the likes of Roger Craig to run through and the Niners offense took off. His first season in San Francisco he won 2 games. His 3rd year they were NFL champions. Steve Young is underrated. Yeah, I’ll say it. He probably had one of the toughest jobs in NFL history by replacing Joe Montana. Not only did the fans of San Francisco love Joe, but fans across the country loved him. No one wanted to see him go to Kansas City. The owner wanted Montana as the starter. Teammates wanted Montana as the starter. It was actually Montana who volunteered to get traded when the problem got so bad. (Rumors circulated back then that Young was going to get traded, but it never happened). Young came in and in his first year as the undisputed starter took the 49ers to the NFC championship game before losing to those Dallas Cowboys. His second year earned him his only Super Bowl, but in the face of all that adversity, I believe it’s enough to get his face chiseled upon that mantle. And solidify the 49ers in the top 3 in all of sports.
#2 – Minneapolis/LA Lakers – Jerry West, Magic, Kareem, Kobe Bryant.
When three players can be listed by their first name, you know you have it good as a franchise. When Shaq doesn’t make the mantle, you know you have it good as a franchise. When George Mikan doesn’t make the mantle... this organization has had so much talent and success that I literally had no idea on who to put in the top four. Pat Riley essentially invented Showtime Lakers basketball. Phil Jackson won 5 rings here. Jerry Buss was a very recognizable owner. But what I like about the Lakers is that it’s always been about the players and the basketball. And what a group. Jerry West was probably one of the best pure scorers of all-time. And although he didn’t win as well as some of the others, the Lakers were always close to the top. His achievements after the game of basketball have been spectacular as well. Magic Johnson, it could be argued was once the face of the NBA along with Bird, Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan. They got the NBA back to the interest level that it has today and he did a lot of winning as well. It’s a shame that his career ended so soon. Kareem is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, he changed the rules of the game along the way, and created a move that is still talked about 30 years later (sky hook). At one point he was almost indefensible one-on-one and he has been a great ambassador for the game even after his playing days. Kobe is polarizing to say the least. I loved him when he entered the NBA because he played with no fear and didn’t back down to anyone. Then I hated him for essentially trying to take over “Shaq’s team” when clearly he had no right to do so. He called out teammates and never really embraced that role of team leader until it was too late. Now I have the utmost respect for him, as he’s won on his own, he’s worked harder than just about anybody (Michael and Jerry come to mind) to stay on top as long as he has, and he’s shown us how much he loves the game of basketball. Too even be mentioned in the same breath as Jordan is good enough to get the final spot on this great franchise.
#1- New York Yankees – Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Derek Jeter, Joe DiMaggio
Well, I finally feel good about the four that I picked. In fact, the Yankees should realistically have two Rushmore’s because Steinbrenner, Berra, Ford and Mantle might be pissed at me. Or Reggie Jackson, Roger Maris, Thurman Munson, Billy Martin, Joe Torre and Tony Lazzeri. I’m not going to give my reasons for picking these four, or why I believe that it should be them. I don’t want to interfere with the only sports franchise that actually deserves to have a Mount Rushmore in their honor.
 |
| Someone almost beat me to it, but picked Mantle over DiMaggio. I'm not mad. |
Fun note: To put this 4 into perspective they combined for 11,236 hits with DiMaggio only playing 13 seasons, Gehrig’s career cut short due to ALS, Ruth pitching for the early part of his career and Jeter not quite being finished yet. If given full, relatively healthy careers, they probably could’ve pushed around 15,000 hits between the four.
No comments:
Post a Comment